Reports of new crackdown by China in Tibet

Exile groups say there are more patrols, even as negotiations held

Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times

Published
4:00 am PST, Saturday, November 22, 2008

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, right, confers with Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, during a function in Dharmsala, India, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008. A summit of Tibetan exiles is turning into a clash of generations over the direction of their struggle with China. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia) less

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, right, confers with Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, during a function in Dharmsala, India, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008. A summit of ... more

Photo: Ashwini Bhatia, AP

Photo: Ashwini Bhatia, AP

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Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, right, confers with Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, during a function in Dharmsala, India, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008. A summit of Tibetan exiles is turning into a clash of generations over the direction of their struggle with China. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia) less

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, right, confers with Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, during a function in Dharmsala, India, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008. A summit of ... more

Photo: Ashwini Bhatia, AP

Reports of new crackdown by China in Tibet

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China has further tightened control in Tibet in recent weeks, exile groups say, even as it was ostensibly negotiating in good faith with the Dalai Lama's envoys.

Stepped-up patrols and increased paramilitary presence in Lhasa, the capital, and along major transport arteries coincide with a strategy meeting attended by exiles in northern India this week, members of exile groups say.

"We've monitored an even more intense crackdown in the past couple of weeks," Kate Saunders, communications director with the advocacy group International Campaign for Tibet, said Thursday.

The group said a source inside China this week reported seeing three convoys of as many as 15 Chinese military vehicles west of the town of Kangding, an area of significant unrest, along with roadblocks, bunkers and armed forces around bridges and government buildings.

Chinese officials and envoys of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, this month wrapped up several days of talks, the seventh inconclusive round in six years, after widespread unrest in Tibet in March.

More than 500 delegates from around the world have descended on Dharamsala, a mountain village near the Chinese border, home of the self-declared Tibetan government in exile, for six days of meetings on Tibet's future.

The prime minister of the exiled Tibetan government in India, Samdhong Rinpoche, said today that the delegates will probably continue to support the Dalai Lama's "middle path" of compromise.

"The committee's report appears to be a quiet consensus in favor of the middle path approach, as we expected before," Rinpoche said.

Under that approach, Tibetans acknowledge Beijing's right to sovereignty while hoping to secure greater autonomy over Tibetan religious and cultural affairs.

There had been speculation that this week's meetings might explore a new approach amid concern that the Dalai Lama, 73, may not have too many years of good health left. Last month, he was hospitalized and had an operation to remove gallstones.

One of the biggest challenges for the exile community is communicating with the 6 million Tibetans in their homeland, given Chinese restrictions on information and travel.

China seized control of Tibet in 1951. Since then, the government has invested billions of dollars in roads, schools and other infrastructure but has fallen short in winning over hearts and minds. Beijing is bracing for the 50th anniversary of its March 1959 crackdown that saw the Dalai Lama flee to India.

Tsering, a senior monk at the Kirti Jepa monastery in Dharamsala, said his order relied primarily on telephone calls or hand-delivered messages to communicate with two affiliated monasteries in the eastern part of Tibet, referred to as Amdo by exiles. That became necessary after Chinese seized the monks' laptops in March.

"I don't know about a new crackdown, but we heard the number of military has increased not only in Amdo but Lhasa (as a) show to the Tibetan people," said Tsering, speaking through an interpreter.

The affiliated monasteries in China, Aba Kirti monastery with about 2,700 monks, Taktsang with about 700, have come under increased pressure since riots broke out in March, said Tsering, who goes by one name.

Dharamsala is a focal point for most of the estimated 500,000 exiles spread around the world. But the contrast is stark between this politically astute, cosmopolitan, often well-educated group and the largely rural, often illiterate Tibetans in the homeland.